Best Of
Re: No Buddhist Quotes
“If you want to identify me, ask not where I live, or what I like to eat, or how I comb my hair, but ask me what I am living for, in detail, and ask me what I think is keeping me from living fully for the thing I want to live for. Between these two answers you can determine the identity of any person. The better the answer he has, the more of a person he is.”
~Thomas Merton
marcitko
Re: Becoming 'whole'
Maybe its like bringing awareness to the workings of our mind? The patterns that make us up have greater control when we're unaware of them. Seeing them and bringing them into conscious awareness allows us to be less reactive and more responsive.
person
Connection
Many people in the psycho/spiritual world are talking about the importance of connection with others these days. I think this is different than the more renunciative practices of the past. I'm thinking it has to do with the way people on the spiritual path are living lives in the world and other people are an important part of that.
There is a lot of research showing that the quality of our lives revolves a great deal around the quality of our relationships. Again this is different than the sort of happiness that can come from spiritual attainment.
I've been trying to find a life of balance living in the world with a spiritual pursuit. However, I have a hard time with connection. I've mentioned at times that I readily take on the emotions of others, what "new agers" (not sure this is the term anymore) call an empath. So when I attempt to connect with people as it progresses it starts to become overwhelming for me. Its like having a big bucket of water dumped into my emotional cup. More often than I'd like, it can be fairly negative and unpleasant, not that I'm so pure, but I'm unaccustomed to the new feeling. Depending on how much time we spend together is correlated with how much time it takes to become clear and still again. It makes this element of a healthy worldly life feel largely out of reach.
Family seems doable, because I think we share enough emotionally that it isn't so overwhelming. So I'm not alone and I don't really have that lonely craving feeling. In its absence I suppose there is a tradeoff in that there is more peace and calmness in my life than most.
Just venting a bit, its a source of frustration in my life.
person
Re: What do you think of modern movies?
I’ve been continuing my exploration of what movies changed my life, and one thing I’ve found is that there have been a few that have worked on my sense of fear, which have stayed with me for a long time. Here are some that I’ve remembered…
The Exorcist: I walked into this being shown on Dutch public television in 1983, I would have been 11 at the time. I didn’t see much of it, but what I saw scared the bejesus out of me, and gave me a lasting dislike of all horror films.
Jaws: The reason why to this day I don’t swim in murky or ocean water. This was a tremendous cinematic experience, but also a reason to steer clear of big ocean predators. One viewing was enough to have some scenes burned onto my retinas.
Dr. Strangelove: Darkly funny, with a great performance by Peter Sellers, but also the single movie about the Cold War which really brought home that mankind hovered on the edge of a nuclear extinction for a long time, and maybe still does. Scary.
Jeroen
Re: Being mindful of our actions
I found a long time ago that having expectations of one’s public is a road to pain and discontent. I’ve been an artist at times in my working life, and at other times I have been in charge of teams making artistic products. For me the road to happiness was just to see myself as a steward making a product that was artistically pleasing as well as technically sound.
The thing is if you see yourself as ‘the creator’ or ‘the owner’ of an artwork, you become egoically involved in its appreciation and success. I think it’s worth considering if you want the ego to be part of this process; you could also let go of all considerations of success and failure, and just try to create for the joy of it, with an eye to quality, and just make the best things you can.
I think in that case success will eventually follow.
Jeroen
Re: Being mindful of our actions
@RobinH
As someone whose art is writing, even though I do it rarely, I have found:
... that when I write from a place of trying to tell people what they 'should' or 'ought' or 'would be beneficial' to think and feel (according to me), this never works and I only get pushback.
... that when I write honestly and vulnerably from the perspective of having aroused in myself something positive, or have induced in myself a catharsis, only then do I get positive feeedback, and sometimes - when the muses visit - tremendously positive feedback.
The 'trick' is that arousing something positive in me arouses something positive in the reader and arousing a catharsis for me arouses a catharsis in the reader and everyone wants and is benefited by that.
Just some thoughts that came up for me.
marcitko
Re: Should a Buddhist own a gun ?
It is interesting discussion. Coming from a Buddhist community, I don't even want myself to label "Buddhist" anymore. "Buddhist" doesn't mean follower of true Dhamma or Buddha's teachings and just a label - I have witnessed worst. You may have different meaning for "Buddhist."
silent
Re: The Higher Self
I am female and from nearby country. not from Thailand but staying in Thailand. I just do not want to mention my country name here. I read and listen to Dhamma talks a lot in the past few years and also took online courses. Yes, you are right. It is wrong spelling as I am not familiar with English terms yet. I found clear writings in many places these days but I read mainly in local language until a few months ago. I found this just now https://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/snapshot05/. I will try to simplify what I understand. Because we do not know what is right and what is wrong (ignorance), we are doing things that will keep us continue to suffer or suffer more (Karma formations). Because it is formed, we have consciousness and form - like we currently do - become humans. As a result, we can hear, feel, see, smell, taste with our six sense organs which is part of a human whenever we got contact with something. That contact makes you feel - like, dislike or neutral (Vedana). That made you crave ( if you don't like want to push things away, if you like you want more) - it is attachment. Because of attachment we cling to these things - not only food, materials but also to humans such as parents, lovers, spouses, children or even reputation, opinion, belief system, and so on. That clinging/ grasping make us continue to exist - cannot let go, cannot break free from fetters and therefore, rebirth as humans or other forms (higher or lower realms) again. As we were born, we will old and we will die -- as innate fate of human or animal or other forms. As we do not aware of that, we restart again and again and living in this cycle of suffering. Once you know, you change your behavior and meditation and mindfulness is a tool to break this cycle. The place to break cycle is the link between feeling and craving. You can feel but if you can let go of craving, your mental chains become weaker and weaker. When the first three broke, you become a stream-enterer and will not go to lower realms or hell. You have only maximum of seven births to be fully liberated. Hope my explanation make sense.
silent
Re: The Higher Self
@Jeroen said:
@silent said:
I am from Theravada community and I am not familiar with "higher-self" concept. We would like to think some people from higher realms are protecting us but I did not hear that higher-self thing. I heard about it only from YouTube astrology videos.Hi silent. Wikipedia has this definition of a higher self:
Higher self is a term associated with multiple belief systems, but its basic premise describes an eternal, omniscient, conscious, and intelligent being, who is one's real self. Blavatsky, who founded the Theosophical Movement, formally defined the higher self as "Atma the inseparable ray of the Universe and one self. It is the God above, more than within, us". According to Blavatsky, each and every individual has a higher self.
So it goes back to the Theosophists.
Thanks for explaining. Yes, it is not Buddha's teaching. We do not even have "self" and therefore, no such thing as "higher-self" as far as I understand. To get first enlightenment (stream-entry), we need to remove "self" (sakkāya-diṭṭhi) with knowledge first. Unless, insight will not progress. When we actually gained first enlightenment, sense of self/ identity view completely dissolved. This if one of the three fetters totally cut off at that stage. Sense of self as "conceit" will still exist and only disappear when one is fully enlightened. Just sharing what I learned from Dhamma talks and readings.
silent